Rain Will Make The Flowers Grow
by BellePheonix
Summary: "I know this is no place for me, still I would rather be with you!" Her words rang in his ears and love drowned out any reasoning. "Then stay. Stay with me. Please..." E/E
1. Prologue

**A/N. Hiya! This is my first Les Miserables fan fiction so please be nice! I don't have a beta reader but if anyone would want to I would love some help. This is primarily an E/E story but will involve some M/C along with other pairings and one sided R/E. This is just a prologue…other chapter will be longer! Happy reading! **

**Disclaimer- I am not the brilliant mind that though up Les Miserables…got it? x**

Eponine stood silently outside the doors of the Café Musain. She took a deep breath, collecting herself. She gingerly touched the fresh bruise on her arm and winced. Her father was constantly getting more unpredictable. One moment he would be giving her a fresh bit of bread and the next slapping her to the ground. The latest argument had come about through Montparnasse. She had refused to help him with his latest crime and all that it had earned was a beating. Eponine silently vowed to be more careful as she turned to the door of the Café. She had never been there before as it was generally considered the students place of meeting. However Marius had asked her to meet him there earlier in the week and this was the first chance she had. She wasn't going to pass up a chance to see Marius after all.

When he had first entered her life it had been as if he was the moon and the stars. He overpowered the darkness of the night that was her life. Eponine knew that she owed him a lot of her current happiness so if entering the Café was what it took, she would do it.

Her years on the streets made it easy for her to silently slip up the stairs to the upstairs of the Café. Her dark hazel eyes flicked around the room quickly, taking in her surroundings. There was a blonde-curly haired man avidly talking to another man who was listening just as intently, there was a smirking drunkard by the counter and…_yes_…there was Marius. She slipped over to join him she felt her heart skip a beat as he grinned at her.

"Eponine", he grinned, "You made it."

Eponine forced a smile. Pretending that there was nothing she would rather be doing than attracting stares. If she was being honest with herself she knew she would rather be here than at home, at least here she was reasonably safe.

"Anything for you, Monsieur Marius", she teased knowing he wouldn't recognize the barely hidden truth behind her outwardly casual words. She was proved correct when Marius turned to his companion who up to that point Eponine had not realised was there and began to introduce her.

"'Ponine, this is Joly. He's a medical student at the University."

This time Eponine's smile was not forced, "It's a pleasure to meet you Monsieur Joly", she said with a grin in her voice. Joly seemed like a nice man. Not the usual that she was accustomed to dealing with.

"Lovely to meet you too Mademoiselle," he replied and Eponine felt something leap in her stomach. No one had called her Mademoiselle in a very long time.

"Please Monsieur," she began, "I'm no lady. Eponine is fine-"

She was cut off by a voice talking over hers and whirled round to see the blonde haired man from before standing behind her. He smiled down at her and she couldn't help noticing how his whole face seemed to lift when he did it and the spark in his eyes grew brighter. Eponine snapped herself out of her day dreaming and focused on what the man was saying.

"You are certaintly a lady **Mademoiselle** and deserve to be treated as such. In the eyes of the republic everyone is equal. "

At this point the man turned to face the rest of the students in the Café and as if there was some invisible magnetic that attracted people to him, everyone's eyes seemed to focus on him. Even the drunk at the bar found the strength to put down his bottle and focus on the man, even if he did a strange look on his face. It was mostly a smirk but with a hint of…longing? Eponine shook herself and found her eyes refocusing on who she now believed to be the clear the leader of the bunch of students, as he began speaking again.

"My friends, the goal we strive to may seem far away but Patria is on our side my friends. We have each other and we know what is right. The path we have been set on lets us change the way of the world. For the people of Paris, we shall drive back the rich who squander there money and have no urge to help. The time is almost near. We have no fear and when the time is right the flame of rebellion will catch and its hold will never yield until we are victorious in our efforts and France is once again a free country as she was always meant to be. _Vive la France!_"

The man's speech was captivating and Eponine felt like she was in a trance like state. As the man's last cheer was echoed around the Café, Eponine found herself looking into the man's eyes. She had thought that the spark in them had grown when he smiled but now, as he talked about his passion, the spark has exploded into a raging fire that would always burn. Eponine turned back to Marius and Joly feeling her mouth slightly agape. She quickly snapped it shut as both Marius and Joly started to chuckle.

"That's Enjolras," laughed Joly, "Always leaving people wide-eyed."

Eponine found herself nodding without thinking about it. _Enjolras._ It was a nice name and defiantly suited the rebel that had such a way with words. Out of the corner of her eye she was her younger brother reluctantly accepting a piece of bread from Enjolras. She was tempted to go over and talk to Gavroche but found she couldn't bring herself to interrupt her brother who clearly looked up to all these men. Instead she excused herself from her current table and headed over to the drunk who was still looking at Enjolras. She made a point of sitting down next to him and was glad that, that caught his attention. He looked just as much as a misfit as she did next to all the clever, _sober,_ school boys and she felt a strange need to talk to him. However, when she opened her mouth to say something he beat her to it.

"Bonjour_ Nina. _You looking for anyone…thing special." The drunk leered at her suggestively yet she felt certain that he was messing with her so she put her attention to the more pressing matter.

"Nina? How did you get Nina…" Eponine struggled to think of the man's name while currently baffled with her surprising new nickname.

"Grantaire. And as for the 'how', well you know Eponine to Eponina to Nina. It all makes sense love."

Eponine giggled which was very unlike her, but his Grantaire was different to. "I that case I will have to call you 'Taire", she decided, "It's only fair after all" she said, winking at him which caused him in turn to laugh. He pushed a drink towards her. For him, the ultimate sign of friendship. Eponine picked up the bottle but before drinking turned her eyes to Marius who had barely noticed her absence. '_Little he knows, little he sees…' _she thought before take a long gulp from the bottle. Little she knew there was someone else curiously watching her.


	2. Chapter 1: Cracked Flower

**A/N. Hiya! I'm glad I got this chapter up this quickly! Thanks to my amazing new beta SleepingwithinWater! Quick question. Would you like this story to be AU- as in the barricade works or Eponine or Enjolras live etc…or do you want me to keep it how it's written and follow the book/musical/movie and have them die etc. Leave me a note with your preference. ****Thanks to everybody that reviewed!**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, still don't earn Les Miserables! **

Gavroche peered round the corner near the Thénardiers run-down home in one of the poorest parts of Paris. There was no way the young street urchin wanted to risk running into either of his _parents._ He had seen Eponine at the Café Musain the night before and as he hadn't had the chance to catch up with her then, decided that now would be a good a time as any, providing the elder Thénardiers were out of course. As Gavroche entered the building, he had another glance around. If any of the Patron-Minette, appeared he would be dead.

"Gavroche!" Azelma appeared from behind a door and exclaimed in delight as she saw her brother standing awkwardly in her house. She quickly rid herself of the broom she was carrying, she hadn't seen Gavroche in too long and she wasn't about to miss an opportunity to catch up. Azelma often regretted not leaving with Gavroche, but when it came down to it, she knew she didn't have the courage needed to run away. She dug around in her pocket and came out with a few francs which she casually tossed to Gavroche, as if she hadn't spent weeks saving up the money. "There ya go 'Roche! Don't ya love me," she teased, childishly sticking out her tongue when Gavroche rolled his eyes.

When Eponine appeared in the door way of her home a few minutes later she found Azelma and Gavroche playing a bizarre game of 'trying to kill each other'. After Azelma's moment of immaturity, Gavroche had seen fit to retaliate and as neither of the siblings wished to be seen as the weaker; an impromptu tickling war had begun and was in fall mode when Eponine arrived.

"Azelma, Gavroche!" Eponine yelled over the playful screaming. Both of her siblings turned to her and for a rare moment both of them had huge smiles on their faces. Since her family had lost the inn, moments of happiness were few and far between so Eponine regretted breaking up the fun. Eponine focused on Gavroche and finished speaking; "'Roche, Papa and Montparnasse are less than a minute away." She tried to contain her concern so as to appear strong to her siblings but panic was threating to take over. One of Thénardier's new thug members had messed up an important job and his mood was quickly becoming worse. If he caught Gavroche here things would be bad.

As she finished issuing her warning the three siblings heard the sounds of heavy footsteps and muttered curses growing closer. On instinct Gavroche sprinted into the backroom, needing to get as far away as was possible from the oncoming men.

The backroom consisted mainly of old chairs and broken furniture but by the back wall was a small window. Just small enough for him to fit through. Gavroche's heart was hammering against him chest as he began to try and push open the window. For all his bravado he was still a young boy and if there was one thing that scared him it would be his father. As he worked to pry open the window he heard Montparnasse and Thénardier enter in house. He began working faster and to his relief the window fell wide open. Hurriedly, he climbed out and casually leaped the small jump from the window to the street. After letting himself have a moment of triumph Gavroche turned back to the window and tried to shut it but it was too high up for him when he was on the street. He glanced around for an item to assist him. He had to shut the window or his father or one of the Patron Minette might get suspicious if they saw it open. His eyes fell on a large stick lying two or three meters away and ran towards it. It might give him the extra height needed to shut the window. Gavroche picked up the stick grimacing at the mud all over it. It he was only worried about himself he would have just left the window open. He grinned at the thought. It would do his father good to know that he had been outwitted by his own young son.

But there was Eponine and Azelma to think about. He didn't want them to have to have their father's wrath if he found the open window and figured out what had happened. So it was for them that he carefully set the stick in a good position before knocking it on the window, forcing it to shut. Grinning at his success the young boy failed to realise that the sound of the window clanging shut would have been heard from within the house. The grin quickly vanished from his face as he saw his father's furious face appear at the window.

For the second time that night Gavroche found himself acting on instinct and automatically turned and fled. He didn't run fast enough however to block out the sound of his father's angry shouting, an angry slap and Eponine's muffled scream.

Grantaire could honestly say that he couldn't remember the last time he wasn't drunk by noon. Today however, he had not so solemnly vowed to limit himself to four bottles of ale. "This in itself was nothing short of a miracle and Grantaire was a firm believer in drinking away one's troubles. He would tell himself repeatedly: "one drink for one trouble. While this may seem like a reasonable excuse, once the man had run out of real troubles would become things such as 'he couldn't think of any more troubles' and 'I'm drunk'.

Today, however, was a special day. The only problem was he couldn't remember why. He knew it was something to do with one of his friends so comforted his lack of memory by telling himself that if he just sat at the Café Musain, eventually one of his friends would show up and tell him what was so special about today.

Unfortunately for Grantaire, the special event of the day was that, in a rarity, there was no meeting scheduled for the day and therefore it would be unlikely that any of his friends would show up at the Café. As that was the case Grantaire found himself having a rather boring day of drinking far more slowly than he was used to and thinking. Grantaire soon came to realise that there was only so much that a person could think about while nursing one drink and staring at a spot on the wall, therefore he was very happy when the young urchin Gavroche , who the Les Amis had unofficially adopted as a younger brother, ran in.

"'Roche!" Grantaire yelled out happily, and was pleased to see the young boy smile at him. Although Gavroche was still young and lived on the streets, Grantaire found that he had a clever mind and was plenty capable of taking care of himself, even if he was often seen with a bruise or two. "How's your day been?"

Normally Grantaire wasn't really one for meaningless pleasantries, so when asked Gavroche the question he wanted an honest answer and not a simple 'fine' or 'okay'. The look on the young boy's face when he walked in had alerted him to the fact that something may be wrong and he was determined to find out what. Even if it meant putting down his beloved bottle, some things were worth it, and cheering up the young boy was at the top of things that were worth it.

When her father had finally collapsed due to a large intake of alcohol it was well into the night and Eponine had wasted no time in running out of her house and back onto the streets. Her cheek still stung from the earlier slap and she regretted screaming but was glad that Gavroche had managed to get away unscathed.

As Eponine meandered through the streets with no destination in her mind she eventually found herself standing over the river Seine. She had briefly considered going to the Café Musain but as there was no meeting today she doubted any of her new companions would be there.

Eponine found herself looking into the swirling water. The soft breeze made gentle patterns appear on the water. Eponine found herself focusing on her reflection in the water. She knew she wasn't hideous. For a street rat she had managed to keep herself looking reasonably well. Her dark hair was wavy and fell past her shoulders, she had pretty dark eyes and a subtly curvy figure. Her looks were part of her fear. She was scared that if her family became too short of money she would be forced to work as a whore. That was something she never wanted. She would run away before she let that happen. She had lost everything else in life, she wasn't going to lose her dignity and pride.

The moon began to pass under a cloud and the water became a harsh black. She needed Marius, her moon and stars to brighten up the dark water. The practical side of Eponine insisted that it wasn't the moon she needed it was the sun. She needed fire to help her see. Unbidden the image of the charisma filled leader of the group of school boys rose in her mind. His eyes had certaintly held fire yesterday…

Shaking her head at these new thoughts she found herself looking back at the water and her reflection. She almost screamed.

With no sun and no stars her face had changed. Her pretty locks now looked burnt, her body was thin. Far too thin. It looked as if one punch would swiftly snap her in to. But what frightened her the most was her eyes. They were dead. There was no spark. Nothing. Eponine pushed her self away from the water, shaking and fell to the ground. Was nothing as it seemed? Was that what she looked like to other people? Dead and lifeless.

She became absorbed in her depressing thoughts, so much so she didn't hear the figure approach until her was standing right next to her.

"Mademoiselle? Are you alright?"

The voice sounded familiar to Eponine. It was one of the one's she had heard the night before. Enjolras. She was sure of it. Trying to regain her dignity she stood up, trembling slightly. She tried to make a small curtsy but the effort was too much for her already weak legs and she found herself back on her floor. A sob ripped out of her chest as she remembered what had made her feel so feeble and weak. She saw Enjolras sit down beside her but was too distraught to feel gratitude at the kind motion. It wasn't until he awkwardly placed a hand on her should that some inkling of warmth returned to her.

The two stayed like that for a while, as Eponine drew comfort from the kind man. When she finally was under control again she gently drew out of the embrace and following his lead stood up again. Before she could think about the awkwardness of the situation Enjolras was speaking to her.

"Whatever was the matter Eponine?" Although he spoke softly, she could still hear the burning passion in his words and that made her believe that he actually cared, that the words were not just empty. Still her pride was too much for her to allow herself to tell Enjolras everything so she settled for an abridged version of the truth.

"I was merely upset by something I saw in the river Monsieur ", she began, though sensing that this would not be enough for the man's curiosity she hesitantly continued, "I saw something…something dead."

Eponine hoped that this would be enough and was thankful when she saw Enjolras nod.

He fully believed what the gamine before him was telling him. He knew how disturbing it could be to discover a dead body, whether it be human or animal, and made a mental note to when the time came, keep Eponine away from the revolution. He felt a strong need to protect the beautiful young girl who couldn't have been more than five years younger than him. It wasn't her fault that life had dealt her an unfair lot, but she hadn't given up and that was something Enjolras respected about her.

He frowned as he noticed she was shivering and made to offer his jacket to her, but before he could she was speaking again.

"Thank you, Monsieur, for your kindness tonight. If there was some way I could repay you…", Eponine let the thought trail of knowing there was not much she could offer the rich young man.

"Eponine, the only way you could repay me would be if you came to the Café tomorrow. I long to get to know you better as you seem a remarkable person."

Eponine felt her heart skip a beat as his words. Not many people were kind to street rats yet here was a kind Parisian treating her with respect and courtesy. A smile lit up her face as she nodded at him before turning away. "Of course Monsieur", she said before her back was to him and began to walk away.

"One more thing", she heard him yell out from behind her, "Please call me Enjolras."

Eponine turned back, grinned and nodded before leaving.

Her night had ended up better than she had expected and she felt happy that she had successfully banished thoughts of her hideous reflection from her mind. On her way home Eponine had to pass through a richer part of Paris. A part where flowers always grew and fresh, beautiful smells filled her joy. The main square of the street had been made into a pretty garden that was rounded off amazingly well. As well as the natural flowers there were one's made of different types of pretty stone. Eponine hesitated in her walk as she stopped in front of one of the marble flowers. Something had happened to the flower and it made it stand out more from all the others. It gave it more character, made it more personal and in her opinion made it better than the other flawless flowers.

As she continued her walk home, her mind was filled with thoughts of the crack in the marble flower.


	3. Chapter 2: The Turning Point

**A/N. FILLER CHAPTER! Okay so first things first. So sorry for not updating sooner! I'm trying to finish the story so you can have regular updates. I'm almost done, but in the meantime here is a little chapter. Sorry if it's rushed, I wrote it rather quickly! Really short as well by the way but it sets up the rest of the story!**

**Disclaimer: …Me owning Les Miserables? I'll keep dreaming ;)**

Eponine had long since proven that she was more than capable of looking out for herself. She was someone who was strong, determined and brave. She knew her way round the streets of Paris. People knew her as a Thénardier and usually left her alone and she liked it that way. She relished in being independent. Relying on others carried too much of a risk for the poor of France; a risk Eponine had taken far too many times, only to be let down.

That had all changed when met Monsieur Marius. While the young student could often be distracted he always was there for Eponine. The first person to ever be so. She supposed Gavroche also fit into the category, after all he rarely missed a chance to help his older sister, but Eponine had always felt obliged to protect her younger siblings considering she was eldest.

As Eponine reached the doors to the Café Musain she faltered slightly. It had been a few days since the bridge…incident and she hadn't seen Enjolras since. Although she told herself that was only because she had been busy trying to earn money, truthfully Eponine was slightly embarrassed by what had occurred. Usually went she hung around at the Café she talked to Grantaire and Marius mostly, but she had, had at least a couple of conversations with all the other boys…aside from Enjolras. He had always seemed so strong and un-touchable that Eponine had always been lightly hesitant about approaching the leader of the Les Amis. Seeing him on the bridge had been comforting to her, in the knowledge that she know knew he was human, just like her, and didn't place himself above anyone.

'_Either way it doesn't matter'_, Eponine decided as she marched into the Café. _'I just as much right to be there as anyone else and-'_

Her trail of thought cut off. She had become preoccupied with her thinking and had failed to observe that there was not as much noise as their usually was coming from the back room of the Café at this time. In fact when she had slammed the door open, the room had been almost silent.

As all the heads in the room turned to her, Eponine had to keep from blushing. She was Eponine Thénardier. She didn't blush! When she was sure she hadn't gone red from embarrassment Eponine began to scan the room to find the cause of the silence. It didn't take long for her to find Gavroche sitting in the centre of the room with all the schoolboys facing him. It took her even less time to figure out what was wrong and after that it took all of three seconds for Eponine to calm herself down and walk over to her brother.

All the way across Gavroche's cheek was an angry red line which had the occasional bit of blood still dripping from it. The knife cut was not too deep, but it was deep enough to leave at least a faint mark. As she approached the young boy she saw Joly preparing a bandage of some sort out of the corner of her eye, and thanked him with a quick nod and small smile. While she was upset her brother was hurt, it wasn't the worst she had ever seen on street dweller and to her it felt strangely ironic that the students, the people's fighters, were making such a big deal out of the small cut. In a way though, she was glad they were. She was always thankful that the Les Amis looked out for 'Roche.

Deciding that Gavroche was receiving enough sympathy from the boys, Eponine felt it was up to her to get the story first. She knelt on the floor next to Gavroche's chair (despite the student's protests that she should take a chair) and raised an eyebrow at the injured boy.

True to form, Gavroche cheekily grinned at her and Eponine sighed in exasperation and prepared herself to take on her brother.

"Who was it Gavroche?"

Gavroche replied immediately while kicking his legs up on the nearest table, "No-one 'Ponine."

"I see. So you decided to find Papa's knife and cut yourself?"

"Nu-uh, wasn't _his _it was 'Par-"Gavroche suddenly shut up as he realised he'd been caught out, "It was a _Par_sons Eponine! I swear. Just a random _Par_son!"

Eponine felt a tide of fury rise up inside her. There were only a few people who could have scared Gavroche so much and only one of those fit with 'Par'. If it was who she was thinking she would make that person pay.

"It was 'Parnasse wasn't it? "

Seeing her younger brother's reluctant nod was enough to send Eponine over the edge. He was so young, a boy still and yet her childhood friend had injured him with a knife. She had once, long ago, been friendly with 'Parnasse and there was a part of her that wished that nothing had changed. The 'Parnasse hadn't become so ruthless and cold-hearted. With that though, Eponine was washed of any remaining sanity. She jerked herself to her feet and ran out the Café, ignoring the sounds of surprise and yells to come back from the boys. She knew what she was about to do was dangerous but she couldn't stop herself.

She had to do it.


	4. Chapter 3: No Hope

**A.N. As you can probably tell I have been majorly lacking inspiration for this story. This 'chapter' is just under 500 words but I couldn't think what to write. It wasn't working. I'm thinking of putting this story under hiatus for a while. I might now if I get sudden inspiration but It looks likely.**

Eponine had been looking for Montparnasse for over an hour with no luck. The rat knew the streets as well as she did and Eponine had no doubt that he was well aware she was looking for him. The earlier rage she had felt was slowly ebbing away and reality was setting in. Eponine was small and quick but years on the streets had left her physically weaker than Montparnasse. It would be a challenge. One that Eponine was willing to take on.

Every day she regretted not protecting Gavroche better when he was a young child. She had let her fear of her parents make her selfish and for a while she had only taken care of herself. A while was all it took for her parents to kick their son onto the streets. Eponine's mind was constantly plagued with 'what-if's' and 'what could have happened'. If what she was about to do would ease the guilt even a little bit she would be happy.

Eponine stopped her furious walking through the streets and crouched behind a doorway. She would let Montparnasse come to her. Make it seem like she had given up. The assassin would never miss a chance to gloat.

There used to be a time when Montparnasse would find her to comfort her. He would have been able to make her laugh. Eponine felt her eyes sink shut as she remembered happier times. It was hopeless. She would never truly be able to hurt Montparnasse. She was tough, there was no doubt, but like everyone she clung to the hope that her childhood best friend was in there somewhere and she would never kill him until she was certain he was gone.

"Well, what 'ave we 'ere."

Eponine's eyes shot open as Montparnasse voice echoed in front of her. She grinned without humour as she realised how well she still knew him.

"You hurt Gavroche." While Montparnasse voice dripped in argot, Eponine had managed to retain a silkier voice. "Even after you promised you wouldn't. You still did."

"You broke your promise to 'Ponine." Montparnasse sneered the last word, making Eponine flinch.

He was right in a way. She had also abandoned him. Given up on him, thought him incapable of redemption. She hated herself for it but she knew deep down she was right. Montparnasse had gone past the boundary and there was no way to save him.


End file.
